Red Hat Seeks Defense Against Patent Lawsuit
In October 2007 IP Innovation filed a lawsuit against Novell and Red Hat for violation of certain virtual desktop patents. Red Hat is now asking the community for help to invalidate it.
IP Innovation LLC, a subsidiary of the California Acacia Technologies patent enforcement firm, had filed a claim in Texas court that Red Hat and Novell had violated three U.S. patents concerning a user interface with multiple workspaces. Red Hat is now seeking to counter the claim by providing proof that the technology had already been widespread at the time of the lawsuit, citing the "prior art" provision.
Red Hat has published information in its defense on the Post-Issue Peer to Patent pages of the Linux Defenders website. The patents had originated March 25, 1987, and addressed a "User interface with multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects" (full details of the lawsuit from Groklaw).
In a Fedora-announce-list e-mail, Red Hat's VP and counsel Rob Tiller claims that his company has "strong defenses in this lawsuit," but nevertheless seeks input from the FOSS community "to submit prior art relevant to the patents" to "reinforce" their defense.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
ESET Discovers New Linux Malware
WolfsBane is an all-in-one malware that has hit the Linux operating system and includes a dropper, a launcher, and a backdoor.
-
New Linux Kernel Patch Allows Forcing a CPU Mitigation
Even when CPU mitigations can consume precious CPU cycles, it might not be a bad idea to allow users to enable them, even if your machine isn't vulnerable.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 Released
Notify your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that the latest version of RHEL is available with plenty of enhancements.
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
-
Gnome OS Transitioning Toward a General-Purpose Distro
If you're looking for the perfectly vanilla take on the Gnome desktop, Gnome OS might be for you.
-
Fedora 41 Released with New Features
If you're a Fedora fan or just looking for a Linux distribution to help you migrate from Windows, Fedora 41 might be just the ticket.
-
AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10 Gives Power Users a Sneak Preview
If you're looking to kick the tires of AlmaLinux's upstream version, the developers have a purrfect solution.
-
Gnome 47.1 Released with a Few Fixes
The latest release of the Gnome desktop is all about fixing a few nagging issues and not about bringing new features into the mix.